Since 2002, Emaar Properties has delivered over 50,000 properties in the United Arab Emirates and other prime locations in the Gulf. And the pace of growth is accelerating, with over 26,000 residential units currently in development in the UAE.

“Customers trust our brand and the quality of our developments so much that they will often purchase properties off-plan a couple of years in advance,” said Binoo Joseph. “By optimising the sales cycle, we can enrich the overall experience for our customers.”

“To cope with the increased volume of properties and leads, we needed to bring greater efficiency and visibility to the sales cycle,” added Gaurav Bhandari.

Emaar Properties started its Salesforce journey in 2016 with the implementation of Sales Cloud. As Joseph explained: “We were one of the first companies in the Gulf to blaze a trail with Salesforce; it enables us to build personalised experiences and digitalised processes that can be rapidly and easily adapted as our business evolves.”

And there’s a lot of evolution happening at Emaar Properties, especially in how it develops and sells properties. People increasingly want to engage digitally. So, the team has created virtual journeys for nearly every stage of the customer lifecycle – from viewing available properties and exploring different communities, to making an offer and paying a deposit.

To aid this virtual approach, an inventory of residential units is captured in Sales Cloud along with marketing brochures, payment options, and promotions. Sales Cloud also powers the entire purchasing process – from managing leads and reserving properties to agreeing payment plans and generating contracts.

Integrations with social channels and the Emaar Properties website mean that new leads are automatically logged in Sales Cloud. Which means the team can bring aspirational lifestyles within thriving communities to more people. And it’s paying off. The group has a healthy sales backlog worth nearly US$8 billion and reported a 335% increase in property sales in 2021 compared with the previous year.

As well as growing its asset portfolio and customer base, Emaar Properties is expanding its global network of brokers and agents. To facilitate these relationships, Emaar Properties has built a portal on Experience Cloud, which helps brokers and agents track property purchases and check commissions.

The portal is integrated with Sales Cloud as well as the dedicated broker app, MyEmaar. Emaar Properties’ property inventory is constantly changing. Before Salesforce, updates were shared via email, which meant information was often out-of-date.

“Using Experience Cloud and Sales Cloud, we can provide thousands of brokers and agents around the world with real-time visibility of available properties and the ability to book these in real time,” said Bhandari.

The portal and app also make it easier for partners to access marketing material and to create personalised sales offers, which has helped to reduce lead conversion times. Sales Cloud is also integrated with independent international property portals to ensure interested buyers have up-to-date information about the latest developments and promotions.

Emaar Properties’ commitment to excellence doesn’t end when a buyer signs a contract. It offers a range of home services to residents living in its communities. The Emaar One app enables residents to not only connect with home service providers, such as cleaners and electricians, but also manage payments, book amenities, and access construction updates.

The app is integrated with Salesforce Field Service, which simplifies the management of different vendors across different communities. “We used to offer a limited selection of home services via our contact centre,” said Bhandari. “With Field Service, we’ve been able to scale up our home services portfolio, which means greater choice and convenience for our customers.”

Home service technicians use Field Service to view their jobs, upload worksheets, and manage customer payments. Data from the solution is pushed out to the Emaar One app to provide residents with real-time visibility of when a technician is due to arrive.

As well as facilitating 3,500 home service visits per month, Field Service supports the vendor onboarding process. And this is critical, when the quality of the home services offered to communities impacts Emaar Properties’ brand. Using Salesforce, the team can apply consistent checks when adding new vendors.

Emaar Properties uses Salesforce to record satisfaction ratings for home service appointments as well as other key interactions during the customer journey, such as a visit to a show home. And using this feedback loop, the team can continuously improve and enrich the customer experience – leading to consistently happy customers.

With more than 26,000+ new residential units under development in the UAE alone, Emaar Properties needs to ensure it has a healthy pipeline of prospects. As its properties appeal to a broad range of customers – from international investors to young families – the team needs to target the right people with the right propositions and marketing campaigns.

So, Emaar Properties uses Marketing Cloud’s Journey Builder and Email Studio to deliver personalised content at scale. Emails can be created with just a few clicks, significantly reducing delivery times for campaigns. When a prospect engages with marketing content, they are automatically logged as a lead thanks to an integration between Marketing Cloud and Sales Cloud.

The marketing team has created various journeys at key points during the customer lifecycle. For example, if a resident provides positive feedback for a home service, they are sent a follow-up email to encourage a repeat booking. Emaar Properties also uses Marketing Cloud’s Journey Builder to target lookalike audiences on Facebook and Google Ads.

With four of its other business units also using Marketing Cloud, the group is looking at ways to maximise the potential of cross-selling. For example, the team knows that people who stay at the group’s hotels might also be interested in buying one of its properties.

As Emaar Properties continues to embrace digital innovation, it’s constantly finding new ways to transform transactions and experiences. For example, it has introduced DocuSign, a Salesforce AppExchange solution, to simplify the capturing of customer signatures during the property purchasing process.

“The Salesforce AppExchange helps us quickly validate new ideas. It’s critical to our digital journey,” said Joseph.

With more than 200 processes now supported by Salesforce, Emaar Properties can unlock new insights into the customer journey. These insights help the leadership team make more informed decisions about customer relationships and business operations.

To enable even greater system and data synergies, Emaar Properties plans to deploy MuleSoft, Salesforce’s integration and API platform.

Emaar Properties has always been committed to excellence – from its flagship developments to its customer services. Thanks to its investment in digital innovation, Emaar Properties can not only meet but exceed the expectations of its customers on a global scale.

“Customer trust is at our core: buying a new property is a big investment and a big decision,” said Bhandari. “With Salesforce, we can keep pushing our standards even higher to boost customer satisfaction, brand reputation, and revenue generation.”